Heat, 1995 - DVD

I was going to add a section that was for Co-Starring, since the cast on this picture is pretty huge. I'll just add those people here: Diane Venora, Amy Brenneman, Ashley Judd, Mykelti Williamson, Ted Levine, Natalie Portman, Dennis Haysbert, William Fichtner, Tom Noonan, Kevin Gage, Hank Azaria, Danny Trejo, Henry Rollins.

Pretty impressive cast, both for 1995 and now.

This film was originally made as a tv movie in 1989, called L.A. Takedown, also written and directed by Mann. It's curious that he would want to remake one of his own films (please, don't bring up Hitchcock, they're hardly the same man). It would seem, looking at Mann's history, this film coincided with his stint on Miami Vice, and just prior to his breakout Oscar movie The Last of the Mohicans.

So... what was the draw? He got some major backing for the film, a $60 million dollar budget... pretty large for 1995. He got an incredible cast together, especially the two leading men... but it's still a remake. Now, for certain, 99 percent of the audience didn't know that, but Mann did. Strange.

I've been a fan of Mann's since Thief and Manhunter... another film that was remade into the awful Red Dragon... the original is so much better...

But, enough of that tangent stuff. Mann has an eye. It would seem that that eye would pertain only to crime dramas, especially with the success of Miami Vice, Crime Story and Drug Wars... not to mention his features. So, I dig his work. Hell, I don't remember a single person who grew up in the 80's who didn't watch Miami Vice. That and the A-Team was all anyone talked about at school the next day, man.

Another tangent. Sorry.

I didn't see Mohicans. It wasn't a priority for me, when I was watching movies, because I didn't dig period pieces. At the time, I had just gotten out of college, and liked Reservoir Dogs and The Killer. I did, however, come to my senses a few years later, and watched his next film The Insider. Reason being, I had watched Crowe in L.A. Confidential, and loved his work.

I did not see Ali.

Mohicans is, far and away, the only film that ever made any money... in the US. Heat did fairly well here, grossing just shy of $70 million, but did wonderfully overseas. When you've garnered an Oscar nomination, movie companies don't seem to mind throwing money around... even when it's for a remake.

Now, this movie has some serious play in it. What I mean by 'play' is that, for one, there were no sound stages used in the making of the film. Two, the huge locations that were used, including both the opening scene and the incredible shoot-out scene near the end of the film. Three, the incredible cast.

At 178 minutes (that's over three hours for those not in the know), and labeled A Los Angeles Crime Saga... well, we're given an up and down narrative that can be, at times, a bit much. What Mann was trying to accomplish, showing a dichotomy between the criminal and the cop... he did successfully. In fact, he did that, not only with the two main characters, but with the rest of the cast as well. Even though we're focused on both Pacino and De Niro's characters, we get glimpses into all of the criminal and police characters, showing off their similar lifestyles. Their duality.

I was impressed with the scope of the film. The focus that Mann had in staying true to his vision. It would have been very simple to shorten this film, to limit the amount of locations, and give the audience a film they'd seen before, with slightly different characters. He chose to take the chance that people would want to see the ins and outs of the investigation process, the criminal process and how the two meet in the end. How they might not meet... the chances that both sides take.

If there was ever a movie that one wouldn't mind the (sometimes) overacting of Pacino, this is the movie. He's got some of the best lines I've ever heard, and delivers them only the way he can. He was incredible in the action sequences of the film, as was every other actor in the movie... but I don't remember ever seeing Pacino so animated and true to his character, in such a scene.

De Niro, of course, was great. I can see him, almost exactly the same, when he played the main character in Ronin. The two almost go hand in hand.

Kilmer, Voight, Sizemore... all of them did great jobs. Sizemore had been in a number of films prior to this, but you can see how he was cast after his roles in True Romance and Natural Born Killers. Even his role in Strange Days... the characters are similar. Especially Killers, where we see the duality in the same man.

I must mention Dante Spinotti. He is, by far, one of the best DP's in the business. One of his first major American films was Manhunter, with Mann. He would go on to shoot Beaches, Hudson Hawk, Mohicans, The Quick and the Dead (Raimi's western), L.A. Confidential, The Insider, Wonder Boys and Red Dragon, to name a few. He definitely has an eye that directors like. I was particularly impressed with his work in this film, since the entire film was done on locations.

All in all, this is a pretty incredible film. Even for its length, its worth sitting and enjoying the story as it unfolds. You know what's going to happen, the idea isn't a new one... but the characters are well written, the scenes are well thought out, the acting is great.